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The bow-tied, bike-riding Oregon liberal was the author of the 2009 bill aimed at encouraging doctors and physicians to talk to patients about what kind of care they want near the end of life. It notoriously became known as the “death panel.”

The bill is back. Or rather, it’s never gone away.

Each Congress, Blumenauer reintroduces it. He’s even added a few new elements, for instance to make sure that care preferences are incorporated into electronic medical records, not just stuffed in someone’s bedside table. He’s picked up 15 co-sponsors, including a few Republicans. Among them is Tennessee Rep. Phil Roe, an outspoken member of the conservative House GOP Doctors Caucus, which helps drive an unwavering opposition to Obamacare.

Since the heated “death panel” days, Blumenauer has “made it less radioactive,” Jon Keyserling, senior vice president and health policy director of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, said of the congressman’s persistence.

But “less radioactive” isn’t a glide path to passage, particularly not in a highly partisan Congress with Obamacare still rolling out amid charges and counter-charges about rationing, care quality and Big Government intrusion.

Blumenauer talked to POLITICO about his bill this spring and allowed a reporter to listen this month as he addressed critical care physicians who deal with life-and-death situations all the time — and who too often face ambiguity or dissension within families about what their loved one would have wanted.

The Oregon Democrat said he’s convinced his measure calling for doctors to be compensated for these voluntary conversations could “pass pretty comfortably” — if it were to reach the floor. That’s a big “if.” The hangover of 2009 has not totally dissipated. A lot of people still don’t want to go anywhere near the volatile issue four years after the “death panel” summer.

The ongoing conflict over health care reform adds to the difficulty. “There are some people so invested in repealing Obamacare that they don’t want distractions,” Blumenauer said.

That frustrates him.

“We have allowed people with ideological or political agendas to play this out,” Blumenauer said. “We’ve really obscured the fact that this is all about making an informed decision that is respected.”

Roe doesn’t see eye to eye with Blumenauer about Obamacare; he has repeatedly voted to repeal all or part of it and would do so again.

But he’s been reaching out to colleagues, trying to explain that this end-of-life medical consult legislation isn’t Obamacare. It’s about getting people the care they want and helping document their wishes, which may change over time. Both lawmakers noted that an advanced directive doesn’t mean a do-not-resuscitate order. People can and do opt for very aggressive do-everything care.

No companion legislation has yet been introduced in the Senate, but Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) are working on a separate bill addressing several aspects of advanced care planning as well as care for people with life-threatening illness. The bill, which could be introduced soon, won’t be identical to the House version, which could prove another impediment to passage.